I Obtained the Final Boss' Power

Chapter 126 : Great Hero (3)

Great Hero (3)

"Elder system?"

At those words, Rondalph opened his eyes wide and fell into thought.

The elders of the elves were a concept much like that of nobility among humans.

It's a concept limited only within this village, but within its bounds, one can wield power akin to that of a king.

Thanks to this, Rondalph enjoyed an authority that other elves could not.

This is also why he can freely use magic power that others in this place cannot.

Of course, other elves could use it as much as they wanted if they left the village.

There were countless elves who wanted to learn magic or swordsmanship, and among the elves, there were many skilled individuals.

Not being able to use magic power within the village wasn't a big problem, given that those with ability would build their skills outside and then return.

In the first place, in the elf village now, it's become the most important means to keep immigrants in check.

And all these systems were created hundreds of years ago by the Great Mage, who was once a Hero.

"The one who made that system... is inside your body?"

Rondalph was aghast, looking at Silia, who had said so.

No matter how he thought about it, it was hard to believe, but her splitting the iceberg in half was something he couldn't explain.

'That power just now. It was definitely aura!'

Here, unless you are an elder, you cannot manifest aura or magic power.

Yet, there were only two possible explanations.

One, she too has the bloodline of an elder.

The other, the Great Mage really has returned.

'Both are ridiculous explanations!'

First of all, that girl isn't an elf. From that alone, she can't have an elder's bloodline, so ruled out.

And the Great Mage's return?

How could someone who fused with the World Tree centuries ago appear here again?

Since both were realistically impossible, Rondalph shook his head in denial.

"You sure are the kind of girl who jokes to excess. There must be some trick..."

"If you don't believe me, want to test it?"

As Silia spoke with composure, Rondalph bit his lip, veins bulging in his head.

He formed a magic array in his hand again.

"Don't mess with me!"

This time, a magic array even larger than before formed, and a blizzard whipped up inside it.

Silia leapt away to dodge, and everything that had been where she stood froze solid.

"Don't think you can dodge this!"

The magic power in the array intensified, and the blizzard spread wider.

This time, it covered the entire space. Even the elf soldiers lacking resistance to the cold were swept up.

"What about your soldiers?"

At Silia's question, Rondalph replied as if it was nothing.

"A few soldiers sacrificed don't matter. Catching you is much more important!"

Until now, not a single human had intruded here.

In this village where magic power and aura can't be used, Louis and Silia were the first to have trespassed.

It was an unprecedented crisis he hadn't predicted at all.

To completely preserve this place's secret, he had to silence both of them, even at the cost of sacrifices.

"So just die!!"

As Rondalph released a powerful cold, Silia's body began to freeze bit by bit.

The elf soldiers had already frozen, and the entire space turned icy as a refrigerator.

Yet, even in such a space, Silia moved her legs as if unaffected.

"Yeah. It's colder than I thought."

"What?"

Was she really enduring that? Or did she have natural resistance to cold?

Rondalph poured all his power into releasing the cold, but Silia still kept walking towards him.

As expected, her body was enveloped in powerful aura.

"She's using aura like armor...!"

It's said that only knights of high Expert rank or above can use aura to fully shield their bodies for defense.

Thus, Rondalph could tell that Silia was such a strong person.

"In the demon realm, there are plenty of monsters that breathe ice colder than this. Compared to them, you're nothing."

"What are you even talking about?"

"In short... don't mess with me!"

Silia, braving the cold, narrowed the distance instantly.

She suddenly reached right in front of Rondalph and kicked him straight in the gut.

"Guh!"

Rondalph was sent flying and crashed into the wall.

He'd only been hit once, but blood spurted from his mouth and he almost lost consciousness.

"I have a lot to ask, so I won't kill you yet. Not that it'll make you feel much better."

"Ugh...!"

His specialty, cold magic, didn't work at all.

Even in the elf village, this was the first time he'd encountered someone who could freely use aura.

The appearance of such a person was unprecedented in the village's history.

'I have no way to deal with this...!'

Realizing how powerless he was, Rondalph's body shook.

As he retreated in fear, he suddenly noticed something, and his eyes flashed.

"Stay still!"

What caught his eye was none other than Louis.

Rondalph rushed at Louis, who was standing quietly among the elf soldiers, grabbed him, snatched a soldier's spear, and pointed it at Louis's throat.

"If you don't want to see this kid's throat get skewered, stay put!"

Silia blanked out for a moment at the sight.

At the sight of Silia's distracted expression, as if deep in thought, Rondalph smiled, thinking his scheme had worked.

"Hahaha... Puhahahahaha!!"

"Eh?"

Silia laughed suddenly.

"Ahahaha!!"

Even the boy taken hostage began to laugh. What on earth were these two doing?

"Go ahead and stab."

Then Silia spoke.

"What?"

"I said go ahead and stab him."

What kind of nonsense was this girl spouting? Was she telling him to stab the boy?

"You... are you willing to abandon your own ally?"

"Didn't you do the same?"

Silia glanced at the frozen elf soldiers as she replied.

Their hearts had already frozen; no sign of life remained.

Rondalph had chosen to kill even them to kill her and Louis.

"Why? Isn't it upsetting that I'm just doing what you did?"

"No... that's..."

"How about you try stabbing him?"

Why was that girl so confident? True, he had also involved his own people, so he couldn't retort.

'Eh? Wait a minute.'

Rondalph realized something belatedly.

The blizzard he released swept this entire area.

Of course the powerless elf soldiers had frozen.

But why was the boy, who had been among the soldiers, untouched?

"Big Bro. Are you going to stab me, or not?"

Louis, the supposed hostage, smiled faintly as he spoke.

When Rondalph saw that smiling face looking calmly up at him, he felt a chill.

Detecting an inherent threat, he tried to let Louis go.

"If you don't stab me, can I counterattack?"

― BZZT!

But as he tried, suddenly Rondalph's arm was broken.

Louis had gripped and twisted his arm so Rondalph couldn't let go.

"Arghhhhh!"

As his arm flipped back, Rondalph screamed like mad.

The pain, something he'd never experienced before, made his eyes roll back and tears fall.

"Please, spare me! Please!"

In the end, Rondalph instinctively submitted to the two of them.

"You want me to let you live? But you started this—running away doesn't suit you now."

"Aaaagh!!"

As Louis gently twisted the broken arm, Rondalph screamed again.

"Enough. If you keep going, he'll pass out and won't be able to answer."

As Louis was about to completely break it, Silia approached and restrained him.

"As an elder, you must know a lot. Isn't that right?"

Terrified by the two, Rondalph replied,

"Um... are you going to spare me?"

Silia grabbed Rondalph's head and lifted it.

"How you answer..."

[...depends.]

At that moment, Silia's voice seemed to overlap with another—one that sounded very angry.

"For now, how about you start by telling us what you're doing to the immigrants here?"

Eventually, Rondalph, on the verge of tears, opened his mouth.

Leading the two of them somewhere, he began walking down stairs that led to the facility's basement.

Fundamentally, what elves needed was sacred stones to keep the World Tree healthy.

But only humans could produce those sacred stones. So the elves inevitably needed human labor.

"This is..."

Where they were led was an underground labor facility beneath the World Tree research lab.

There, only two types of people could be seen.

People madly digging up small spirit stones and loading them into baskets on their backs.

Elf soldiers whipping and driving those people relentlessly.

Those putting spirit stones into baskets had strings wrapped around their arms, which were connected to a pyramid-shaped machine.

The people tossed the basketed spirit stones on top of a large machine, and as the spirit stones reacted, the pyramid-shaped magitech device activated, and the strings glowed.

"Ugh..."

"Argh!"

The workers with the string around their arms suddenly started screaming.

The strings pulled their vitality into the machine.

When some workers finally collapsed, the elf soldiers showed no mercy.

"Move it!"

"If you want to make the next sacred stone, you have to keep turning the machine!"

They even kicked over the fallen workers.

"Hey, mister. Isn't your daughter at home precious to you? Then get up quickly."

As that was whispered in a worker's ear, he staggered to his feet and muttered,

"Yeah. Hahaha... This dad... can't be resting, right?"

The other collapsed workers also stood up smiling, after some whispered words from the soldiers.

The dead expressions smiling in pain were chilling. It felt as if they were being controlled by something.

"This guy isn't moving."

But there were some laborers who didn't move at all.

"Toss him."

The elf soldiers picked the worker up and threw him off a cliff in the corner, as if discarding leftover trash.

"What is this?"

Silia, watching secretly, asked Rondalph,

"Is that what you elves call a proper job?"

After witnessing the scene, Silia was speechless. Her expression, as if nothing could shock her anymore, said it all.

"Th-that's correct..."

"Elder Sister. Take a closer look at their faces."

Then Louis observed the faces of the laborers closely and said,

"Their faces look a lot like how yours and Rio's looked after you went crazy from eating that fruit, elder sister."

Looking closely, the laborers' faces all wore blank, blissful expressions.

How could they smile like that in the midst of near-deadly pain? It was also strange how they'd get up again at the soldiers' whispers.

"Come to think of it, that fruit brought out a person's true feelings."

By manipulating those honest feelings, they could force people to work like this.

For instance, a father who loved his daughter would act on that love.

That's why the soldiers whispered, 'You must work hard for your daughter.'

"They're all people who didn't pay the development fund. Since they didn't pay a fair price, they ended up like this."

At what Rondalph said, Silia glared, her eyes fierce with poison.

"The development fund itself was wrong to begin with. How can you not realize that?"

Fifty gold per month—what kind of nonsense is that? But Rondalph, looking perplexed, said,

"We allowed those fugitives to settle in our village. What's the problem?"

"What?"

"We feed and shelter them. It's natural for them to repay that favor."

At those words, Silia's eyes widened as if seeing some unknown monster.

Louis too looked repulsed, as if to say, "Are you even human?"

"If we hadn't taken them in, they might have died. So—"

"Hey. Shut your mouth."

There was nothing to be gained by talking to him any further.

Silia barely managed to control her boiling anger at the idea of working people like slaves.

"Open your mouth once more, and I'll tear that arm off."

"Hiek...!"

She too, as an officer of the 7th Legion, had used soldiers like slaves before.

Maybe because she'd become used to such things, her anger faded quickly.

But the people Silia had worked were criminals, while these people were not proven criminals.

Silia resolved to stay calm and clean up this mess.

"But elder sister, one of those people smells like you."

Then Louis pointed at one of the laborers.

Even though he couldn't use magic and his senses were dulled, Louis's nose never lied. Silia turned her eyes to the person Louis indicated.

"Why is... that person..."

At that moment, the rage that she had barely restrained exploded.